A TALE OF LONG AGO

Dear Readers.. 

WE have the sweetest post for YOU tonight. It is sweet in two ways, the first because it is true and the second is because it brought much happiness to both families.

Are YOU sitting comfortably? Then I will begin..

MIRACLE IN TRANSIT.

Thousands of Polish soldiers, women and children arrived in transit camps in the Middle East after being released by the Russians following the German attack on the USSR in 1941 and I helped to entertain them.

One of the soldiers, a quiet, withdrawn young man, had had to leave his young wife a week before the birth of their first baby. With no news of her and no hope of seeing her again, it was small wonder he had "no heart" for any on the parties we arranged.

All his spare time he spent carving with loving care little wooden figures of The Virgin, The Child, Joseph, and an ox and an ass.

The young wood-carver was persuaded to come to the Christmas Eve party. He was carrying a small parcel when I went in the lorry to pick them up from the men's camp. 

"They are finished, my little family," he said. "I cannot give them to my child, so I will give them to the first Polish child I see."

He opened my driving door for me when we reached the family camp. I looked up to thank him but the look on his face drove the thought from my mind. 

He stood motionless, as if he had seen a vision. Then, with a shout that turned all heads, ran to a young woman carrying a sturdy baby boy and flung his arms around them.

The joy of seeing that little family reunited, the chubby baby looking at the Christmas presents I had watched grow out of love and heartbreak, is something I shall never forget.

SECOND TALE.

The author of this Tale about the Polish soldier was Constance.. aka HER mother.

Those of YOU who have read all the Posts of MY Blog might remember that HER parents had to sell their much beloved home, going to live in a tiny house lent to them by extremely kind friends, SHE had left school, all of HER animals were given away and a most of their lovely furniture sold.

Hugo's health was very bad, there were no Benefits to help in such 
a situation. Life was extremely bleak and hard. Constance worked her fingers to the bone doing what she could. 

When she saw an advertisement to win a £100.00 for the best story which HAD to be true and provably so, she entered it and prayed, it was coming up to Christmas, there was no Goose getting fat, all of her beloved livestock had been sold with her much beloved house.

She wrote the story, posted it off to the newspaper and prayed.

On Tuesday, 21st December.. she received the following letter..

Mrs. Constance .....                   20th
Watercress Cottage,
Littlebourne,
Canterbury Kent.


Dear Mrs.  ........


I am pleased to tell you that your Christmas story has been selected as the one-hundred-pound prize winner in our Christmas Story Competition and will appear in our issue on December 23rd.

Your story was selected out of an entry of more than six-thousand and we enjoyed it very much. I am enclosing the cheque for one-hundred-pounds with my sincere hopes that it will bring you some pleasure.

Yours sincerely,
Anthony Clarkson.
Editor.

HOPPIN & A'BOPPIN & A'JUMPING ABOUT..

Dear Readers, WE know not where YOU are but here, in deepest Knightsbridge, it is COLD AND VERY WET..  SHE had thought about going out but realised SHE needed NOT ONE THING.. so changed plans and headed for YumYum HQ.

Oh dear.. I fear these past few days have rattled HER brain.. singular.. heeheeee!

For whilst SHE was a'brewing pots of HER scrummydumptious Crystallised Ginger, SpinyApple and Orange Peel.. I think SHE lost the plot.. SHE grabbed ME, whisked ME upside down and did Rock-around-the-YumYumHQ.. such cheek.. how undignified, supposing someone had lifted off the top of OUR house and been privy to MY embarrassment?

I blame Hugo for this.. it is entirely HIS fault! For he used to catch hold of Constance's hand and dance with her.. it mattered not where they were.. usually in the kitchen where she always had a radio playing.. but off they would go for a few minutes.. then he would give her a kiss and they would go back to they had been doing before.. sweet.

What are YOU a'doing today?  WE know Joanna has Mister Plumber doing plumbing work and some friends are back at work, when SHE was working SHE used to give the team a holiday and then they would come back to work on the first Monday after the New Year.. a few of the team travelled back to their families whose homes were in Turkey and France.

WE are not doing much.. WE are lazing about, if Truth would be told, which it always should be.. many, many books have been read and WE may end up with oblong eyes from the amount of films that WE have watched on HER television!

SHE has got HER nose into European History at the moment.. mostly of the 20th Century. None of it is 'light entertainment' in the slightest.. ugh, man's inhumanity to man.. 'BAD FAITH' by Carmen Callil was gruesome and now SHE is reading 'A WOMAN IN BERLIN' an anonymous diary written in 1945 during the Fall of Berlin.

So to watch 'Singing in the Rain' and 'An American in Paris' have been a pure delight.

SHE goes back to work next week, would love to go to look at garden.. but to journey for an hour to trudge through mud and not be able to do anything when SHE gets there.. makes NO sense!!

SHE has friends coming to stay in January.. I must remind HER to switch Mister Boiler on.. as they are probably used to over heated homes and wearing far fewer clothes than WE do when WE are inside. I am growing more fluffy chest feathers to keep ME warm. And SHE is certainly 'stouter' than SHE was in the Summer!

Off WE go.. crystallising fruit waits for no woman.. oh, I do LURVE that Ginger!

GeeGee Parrot.
December 27th, 2012.

BLOG BIRTHDAY.

Good morning.. good morning.. it's great to stay out late, good morning.. good morning to YOU! Sincere apologies to the writer of 'Singing in the Rain'.

But it is MY Blogs Birthday! For a whole year I have, with regretfully I have to admit some weeks of being AWOL - absent without leave - written to amuse, astound, interest or just make YOU wish that YOU too had an African Grey Parrot in YOUR life.

But YOU certainly have other people in YOUR life.. wives, husbands, children, cats, dogs, fish, goats, rats.. the list is endless.. 

'Officially' SHE does have a human family, somewhere out there are two brothers, a nephew, two nieces, two great nephews and a great niece.. these people are directly related to HER, SHE also has a whole load of cousins, but I have never met any of these people and so, in reality, there is just the two of US. 

SHE tried, for the longest time, to be a sister and an aunt.. but has given up.. when YOU are constantly met with indifference and only contacted when they need or want something.. SHE felt very, very lonely because of this and then one day.. SHE read something which made absolute sense to HER.. and SHE started on a journey. 

SHE read "The definition of loneliness is loving to no avail". Read that, Dear Readers.. for it was the beginning of a new life for HER.

Christmas is a strange time of the year.. there is obscene amount of commercial hype.. obscene amount of money squandered on stuff which is shoddy and of appalling waste. Did YOU make anything to decorate YOUR home or was it bought? Are your Christmas Decorations family 'TREASURES' which are carefully wrapped up
and put away for next year?

For YOUR food, did YOU go to a supermarket - probably owned 
by some non-tax paying conglomerate - or did YOU go to the local butcher OR farmer to ask what their Beef / Duck / Goose / Turkey would cost?

Did YOU, if YOU were in the position to do so, invite a single 
person to share a meal with YOUR family? Do any voluntary 
work?

Time to reflect, Dear Readers.. or are YOU caught up in the, seemingly, never ending drama of MORE.. the photographs of shoppers fighting over boxes of cosmetics in a London store was beyond OUR comprehension. I wonder if they will pay their Utility bills on time?

Speaking of which.. SHE turned OUR boiler off! It sound dire, 
doesn't it? But SHE sat and thought of how HER life was like fifty 
years ago when the family lived in an old house with no central heating, the different food, clothes. And adjusted OUR life 
accordingly. 

What was immediately very funny was that after a few days, our home started to become quite warm.. SHE thought that SHE was imagining it.. but then realised that a neighbour, who has a duplex flat, part of which is behind our flat and above us, had put their heating up because OUR heat was no longer warming theirs!!

Stews with spices, HOMEMADE GINGER SYRUP in hot water, thicker clothes, cotton or woollen tights and HOT water bottles! 

Three of them.. it is quite a crowd in our bed, there is HER, ME on HER head, BIG hot water bottle at HER feet and there are two little ones that roam around, tucked into HER back or near to a hip.

MY BLOGS BIRTHDAY.. and Blogspot is not letting ME celebrate!

Dear Readers.. I am so sorry.. WE wrote a long Post for YOU today but this new version of Blogspot is dreadful and has gobbled most of it up.. WE will try to get it out but it is not signed and will not let us back to the post to finish it off properly.

But today is MY Blogs first birthday, so WE have to say " HELLO" to YOU all.. wherever YOU may be and thank YOU ALL for reading OUR posts for the past year.

GeeGee Parrot.
December 27th, 2012.

Back from the Boon-Docks..

No, Dear Readers, YOU are not imagining things.. it is I, YOUR favourite Blog writing Parrot.. back from those dreadful Boon-Docks, otherwise known as non writings days.. 

WE.. have just realised that it is Christmas Eve and that WE owe YOU all a Post.. so here WE are.

What is OUR news... well, SHE is back doing HER Voluntary work which pleases HER.. I get to have spend time roosting on top of bedroom door, SHE gets to chew fat with some nice people and be of help / do service, I suppose it is called.

OUR life is very quiet.. for it has been very cold and or wet so SHE has been making no trips to garden to pester those poor worms! 

But all should be 'well' there as SHE spent HOURS transporting barrow loads of horse manure and wood chips down the track to the plots, so that each bed would have 'quilts' to make them fat, snug and warm.. 

And what of YOU, Dear Readers? WE have had news from Joanna, the writer of that extremely interesting Blog called 'La Vie en Rose' and a smidgen of news from Ellie of Ellie's Goats Dairy, life on a farm never stops.. her Goaty Ladies are all pregnant again.. can a year pass so quickly?

SHE has had emails asking about OUR wellfare.. I suppose it is because WE have not written for so long.. WE apologise for this. SHE has had to process some very annoying / distressing and unpleasant things that happened to HER in the past month and they have left HER shocked and deeply saddened.

But SHE is strong and will come through this period of darkness.

And so here in deepest Knightsbridge, it is now Christmas Eve.. WE will telephone friends later tonight and tomorrow morning to give them OUR Seasons Greetings and for YOU, Dear Reader, wherever you may be.. WE wish a "Happy Christmas and may YOU and all your families be happy, healthy and safe".

Best wishes from US both.

GeeGee Parrot & HER.
December 24th, 2012.